‘Geostorm’ Review

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Remember the days of film classics like Armageddon, Reign of Fire, The Core, and The Day After Tomorrow? Geostorm takes us right back to that sweet and simple time. A time where we could turn off our brains and enjoy a fun, absurd time at the theater. Geostorm is a sci-fi disaster film starring Gerard Butler, Ed Harris, Zazie Beetz and Andy García. The story follows Jake Lawson, a satellite designer, who is hired to investigate abnormal weather activity caused by malfunctioning climate-controlling satellites. With the help of his younger brother, Max Lawson, and Max’s Secret Service Agent girlfriend, Sarah Wilson, they stumble upon a conspiracy and must save the world from a storm of epic proportions. A couple decades ago Geostorm would have been a summer blockbuster, but now its doomed to blend in with the rest of the fall films. The film boasts a terrific cast with Gerard Butler, Ed Harris, Zazie Beetz and Andy García all pulling off decent performances. Zazie Beetz was a personal favorite and added a fun amount of levity and awkwardness to a few scenes. Gerard Butler was believable as Jake Lawson because he was more of a manager than a scientist. His character knows how things are supposed to operate on “Dutch Boy” and feels responsible for any mishap on the space station. I had a hard time believing Butler and ??? were brothers because they lacked chemistry. The pacing of the film was good and the story was straightforward. I never felt that the film ran on too long, which can happen with disaster films. The director does a good job showing how grand the space station is and how vast the system of satellites is. You’re led to believe that they actually cover the entire atmosphere of the planet. The writers did a great job explaining the science behind how people actually managed to control the weather without sticking on the subject too long so that the viewer doesn’t ask many questions. The film boasted decent special effects, but there were times where the effects were lacking. Like many disaster films, Geostorm has some pretty high stakes. The kind of stakes where even if the heroes prevail the villain will have already done some irreversible damage that will change the world as we know it. Speaking of the villain, the true mastermind was well hidden, but the mastermind’s plan was not the best. Being very one-dimensional, the villain followed all the classic tropes and would have succeeded if he/she had kept quiet. The film could have done without the narration from Jake Lawson’s daughter. I give Geostorm a Normal 6.5/10. A more streamlined script, a more believable villain, and a more interesting actor as Max Lawson could have helped this film out tremendously.

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